Tuesday, December 14, 2004

The last week or so has been really great for gaming. Monday last week I actually won a train game playing against a couple of the grognards. It's good that I win every once in a while otherwise I might get discouraged playing with those guys. Friday night I finally got a chance to run d20 Modern for the first time. I used one of the freebie adventures from wizards.com. My nephews Ian and Alex were the players. They had a good time and in fact described the experience as superior to the D&D games we had played, because d20 Modern is "like Dungeons & Dragons but with guns n' stuff". We may play again. I told them that if their parent's OK'ed it and if they could committ to a regular schedule that I would GM some more adventures for them. Saturday my sister Jenn came for a visit and the two of us ended up down at the Dragon's Table. Jenn was looking for a copy of Fluxx but she let me talk her into getting Bohnanza as well. Turns out my guess was right: she digs the bean game. On Sunday we both ended up dragging a couple of relatives into a couple games of Carcassonne. Last night I got together with the boardgamers again, for some more Bohnanza and a train game called Santa Fe Rails or something like that. Now tomorrow night we're supposed to be doing something with the Pancake Hut Gang. I'm not sure what. I wonder if anyone would be up for an improvised one-shot using Risus or QAGS or something like that?

I got 5 more villains handed in for my Shared Lobotomy writing project. That's means I'm 35% done with the rough draft. Unfortunately, I'm hitting a dry spot. I know more will come, but right now I got nothing. And I'm not getting any work on my con games either. I should at least throw together some PC stats for the Occult Crimes Taskforce, but I've been superbusy between work and home and actually playing games. And I got at least two more projects on the horizon: the Blue Rose Fast Play with Kathleen & Josh and Dave & Heather. (Which reminds me, I need to actually invite Heather to play. Does she get email?) And it looks like maybe the Home Team superhero campaign will be resuscitated under the Mutants & Masterminds rules, assuming I can come up with some conversions for Our Heroes. And I'd still like to do something sci-fi, but I can't quite put my finger on a setting or a system. Traveller? SpaceMaster? d20 Future? The 3rd Imperium? A near-future homebrew? A wild and wooly far future homebrew? A Trek ripoff? A Star Wars ripoff? A Star Frontiers adaptation? Something that pulls out all the stops, complete with psionic overlords, light sabres, giant robots, and buxom space wenches? I just can't make up my mind. And then there's the constant siren call of Dungeons & Dragons. My recent re-read of the 3.5 Unearthed Arcana has made that harder to resist, especially as I could maybe build a kickass campaign using the ideas put forth in Ron Edwards' Sorcerer & Sword. And if I end up with a copy of Castles & Crusades under the Christmas tree all bets are off.

"Man, is there anything Jeff CAN'T do when it comes to gaming? This guy is like a critical 20 every roll. Jeff can bite the heads offa five game geeks, including their sorry-ass DM, and spit 'em into a large duffel bag ONE AT A TIME!...that's just the kind of messed up bastard he is! You think yer a gamer, punk? Well..do ya? Jeff will depants your weasel-ass right in front of your grandma."